Work Makes People Miserable

Being out of work causes unhappiness — but apparently, so does working.

Getty Images

New research based on surveys using a smartphone app found that workers were unhappy and stressed while on the job. In fact, respondents ranked being sick in bed as the only activity more unpleasant than working. When offered dozens of options ranging from leisure, such as going to a concert, to personal paperwork, such as paying bills, workers preferred cleaning the house or waiting in line to being on the job.

The findings, which were published by the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics and Political Science, are based on a project conducted by Alex Bryson and George MacKerron. Mr. Bryson is a visiting research fellow with the Centre for Economic Performance. Mr. MacKerron is a lecturer in economics at the University of Sussex.

The findings aren’t incompatible with the notion that having a meaningful job contributes to one’s well-being and sense of self, Mr. Bryson pointed out. “Although work can be beneficial, it can also stress you out and make you worried and anxious,” he said. “That’s why we normally have to be paid to work in the first place, because in the moment, we’d rather actually be doing anything else.”

His study with Mr. MacKerron, using a smartphone application called “Mappiness,” differs from past attempts to capture feelings about work, which often relied on the Day Reconstruction Method. In those studies, subjects were asked to recall their activities of the previous day and write down how they felt during them.

By contrast, the Mappiness app, which has been available for downloading since August 2010, captures respondents’ feelings in real time. More than 10,000 workers, mostly in the United Kingdom, delivered over a million responses. The survey group is younger and better off than the U.K. population at large, Mr. Bryson said, with median annual household income between $59,000 and $83,000. An estimated 66% are 35 years old or younger and 95% are 50 or younger.

The researchers collected data by sending Mappiness users random electronic reminders, asking what they were doing and how happy and relaxed they felt at that moment. The average respondent, using a series of menus and swipe commands, checked in with 60 responses. Only answers given within an hour of the reminder were included.

Those responses revealed a host of interesting information, Mr. Bryson said, such as the importance of “when you were doing the work, who was around you and what else you were doing.”

The company of friends made work far more bearable, respondents said.”A work episode can be nudged into a positive area of happiness purely because you’re with friends,” Mr. Bryson said. By contrast, being with the boss ratcheted up the tension. Doing one’s job became slightly less stressful when workers combined it with activities such as listening to music, drinking coffee or texting.

Respondents rated being on the job outside the standard nine-to-five work day as even more stressful and agitating. However, working between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. wasn’t so onerous. That might reflect night-shift workers relieved to be finishing up their day, Mr. Bryson said, or day shifters heading in early and “feeling that you’re beating the pressure of work by actually getting a head start in the morning.”

Respondents with very low incomes tended to have a much less negative reaction to work. That may be, Mr. Bryson said, because their options outside work “are not very nice…In that sense, they may as well be working.”

About Real Time Economics

Real Time Economics offers exclusive news, analysis and commentary on the U.S. and global economy, central bank policy and economics. Send news items, comments and questions to the editors and reporters below or email realtimeeconomics@wsj.com.